If you happened to see the awesome documentary The King of Kong, about the obsessive yet downtrodden Steve Wiebe’s attempts to wrest the all-time world’s highest Donkey Kong score from the nefariously-coiffured Billy Mitchell, then you be interested to know that Wiebe is attempting to regain the title as we speak, live on the internet. (If you haven’t seen the movie, go get it. It’s really well done, and involves things like secret video tapes, espionage, cell phone calls in the parking lot of New Hampshire arcade Funspot, a really enormous set of breasts, terrible folk songs, and a completely adorable octogenarian Qbert champion.
This news may also interest you if you like to watch video games but are too lazy to move your own fingers.
I am so jealous of Steve Wiebe … I would love to get paid 10k for all the time i’ve spent practicing video games
Cool. But also, KoK was full of shit, (flubs and lies and re-orderings of chronology, and omissions) in ways that kind of ruin the movie.
Go here if you want more, from the obsessive gamers’ perspectives:
http://forums.allgames.com/showthread.php?s=4fba63fe57fc0765e40d58dc2bf076dd&t=20858
Or just from Wikipedia:
Disputed facts
Walter Day of Twin Galaxies believes that the documentary is dishonest in its portrayal of the actual events. In posts on a Twin Galaxies forum entitled “The King of Kong — Official Statement”[19] he contends, among other things, that:
* In 2000 Tim Sczerby reached a high score of 879,200 points. Steve Wiebe beat both this score and Billy Mitchell’s 1982 score. (In response, the film’s producers claim that “Tim Sczerby’s consistently disputed record was impossible to verify and did not merit inclusion in the film.”[20])
* Billy Mitchell was not always avoiding Steve Wiebe. They met and played together on several occasions before the time period of the film, notably the 2004 Classic Gaming Expo, and they were on very friendly terms — even giving interviews together. In one scene in the film, it is implied that Mitchell drove away from his restaurant when he learned Wiebe was there, but Day contends that in fact Mitchell came in with his whole family and greeted everyone apologetically, including Wiebe.[21]
* Steve Wiebe actually held the high score record for almost 3 years, and when his videotaped score of 1,006,000 points was rejected, the record actually reverted back to Wiebe’s own previous record reached in 2003 — it did not revert to Billy Mitchell’s 1982 score as implied by the film.
* Mitchell’s videotaped record sent to the Funspot event was actually discarded after the event, and Walter Day apologized “for the mistake of approving this videotape without the benefit of a complete verification process”. The score was reverted to Wiebe’s score achieved at Funspot.[22]
Day feels that the information presented above “shows that Twin Galaxies did recognize Steve Wiebe’s great skills and honor him,” and “reveals that Twin Galaxies did not elbow Steve’s accomplishment aside so as to protect Billy Mitchell’s 874,300 point score.”[23]
[edit] Other facts
Director Seth Gordon has also admitted to skewing facts and altering time-lines during various interviews[24] concerning the movie. Through careful editing and instigation, Seth Gordon was able to create a storyline loosely based on reality. However, Gordon contends that the movie would have been “darker” had he not played with the facts; a 2008 interview/article by Retro Gamer Magazine, 52nd issue, with Billy Mitchell, Walter Day, and Steve Wiebe suggest otherwise.
The planned follow-up is said to fix the facts together and continue with the friendly rivalry between Mitchell and Wiebe.